New Hanover County is creating its Comprehensive Plan, which will determine how the community would like to see development occur over the next twenty-five years. Even the youngest citizens are offering input.

County planners visited Castle Hayne Elementary to speak with 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders in Nicole Wolf-Camplin’s gifted classes. The students represent the next generation of residents, and their goals for the future of the county were very much in line with those set forth by the adult focus groups:

When the state stopped funding Drug Treatment Courts in 2011, New Hanover County stepped up to support the program. To measure effectiveness since that switch, the drug court commissioned an evaluation, which was completed last week. UNCW sociology researchers found marked success, though recidivism rates for drug court clients are widely considered to be hard to gauge.

Drug Treatment Court is an intensive substance abuse program. For those who’ve been convicted of crimes connected with drugs—such as possession or stealing—it can serve as an alternative to prison time.

It has oft been said that a rising tide lifts all boats. The City of Wilmington and New Hanover County are banding together to create a marketing alliance between Brunswick, Pender, and New Hanover counties.

Local government representatives are joining with environmental advocates and business leaders to create an alternative to a controversial recommendation from the Garner economic development report. Instead of doing away with the special use permit process, they hope to cut the red tape for some industries.

After a long battle in the primaries, the Seventh Congressional District—that stretching from Wilmington to the Raleigh suburbs--is down to one Republican contender for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Democrat Mike McIntyre. Former state senator David Rouzer of Johnston County won more than fifty-three percent of the vote last night, beating Woody White, chairman of the New Hanover County Commission, and Chris Andrade, a Fayetteville military veteran.

Danny Hefner, the Ocean Isle Beach Democrat who lost 2012’s Senate District Eight race to incumbent Bill Rabon, has thrown his hat into the same ring again. A former Marine Corps officer and truck driver, Hefner now works as a local delivery driver, an inter-faith minister, and a therapeutic foster parent to abused and troubled children. The third-time Senate candidate recently sat down with WHQR to discuss his plans for a range of social issues—but first, Hefner says he plans to address the economy.

The question of what to do with New Hanover County’s solid waste is still open. After hearing long-awaited presentations Monday from two private companies vying to haul local waste to neighboring counties, the commissioners were left dissatisfied with projected costs. While the outside companies have been invited to justify their numbers during next month’s commission board meeting, the county could simply continue to handle waste management operations on its own.